Road deaths up in January

The number of deaths on New Zealand's roads is up for the month when compared with January last year.

For the month of January this year 34 people died on the country's roads, Ministry of Transport figures show. Twenty-eight people died the previous January. 

Among the dead were four people who died in a head on collision near Wairoa.

Of the 2012 deaths, five were motorcyclists, compared with two last year, and five were pedestrians, compared with none last year.

The increase in road deaths for January follows a year in which New Zealand had the lowest annual toll since 1952, with 284 deaths.

However the holiday period road toll _ from 4pm on December 23 to 6am January 4 _ was up 50 per cent on the same period last year, when 12 people died.